Raipur, Sep 1 (IANS) It is planned as a novel two-pronged strategy. On Sep 4 thousands of volunteers, including children, in Chhattisgarh would plant more than two million jatropha saplings in just 11 hours to find a place in the Limca Book of Records - a move that would also motivate people towards the plant, a rich source of bio-fuel.

"We have arranged a grand show on Sep 4 in Kawardha district when thousands of volunteers including from the Red Cross, school children, village heads, women self-help groups and teachers will plant 2-3 million saplings of jatropha in the presence of the media and chief minister," district collector Sonmoni Bora told IANS Friday.

Kawardha is the home district of Chief Minister Raman Singh.

The whole exercise is aimed to create a revolution in jatropha plantations in Chhattisgarh and also to find a place in the Limca Book of Records for the highest-ever jatropha plantations in a single day.

The state government has announced plans to plant 1.6 million jatropha and karanj saplings in the 2006-07 fiscal in all its 16 districts. The plantations are aimed to make India an energy secure country by 2015.

Raman Singh in May last year became the first state chief in the country to use jatropha fuel in his official vehicle. He said recently that his government planned to replace imported diesel with jatropha fuel by year 2007 for all state-owned vehicles running on diesel and petrol.

Chhattisgarh is pushing the central government for an early unveiling of a national bio-fuel policy. It claims the bio-fuel rich plants have the potential to help India get over its annual requirement of 124 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, of which around 72 percent is met through imports at a cost of over Rs.1.5 trillion.